Qilin Dance
01 · Historical Records
Qilin Collecting the Eight Treasures is a traditional folk dance that began to be transmitted in the mid and late Qing dynasty around Qiaocun Village, Xintian Township, Houguai City, Shanxi Province.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The dance expresses the villagers' hopes for a happy and beautiful life and their praise of an age of peace. For more than two hundred years Qiaocun has handed it down orally and by demonstration, passing it from generation to generation to the present day. The dance is divided into three parts. The first part is the "cloud dance": eight golden boys and jade maidens dance lightly with clouds, arranging the clouds into the large characters "peace under heaven". The middle part is the "qilin dance": amid encircling auspicious clouds, the qilin enters and dances under the guidance of the "sun", with graceful posture and beautiful movement, showing an elegant bearing and an auspicious atmosphere. The final part is the "treasure-gathering dance": it shows that the divine and martial qilin strongly yearns for and loves the beautiful things of the human world, and has therefore come down to the human world to gather the eight treasures — the zither, chess, calligraphy, painting, antiquities, the tower, the vase and the game board — in order to adorn the divine palace in the sky.
The three-part structure: cloud dance, qilin dance, treasure dance
The dance has three parts: eight children form the characters for universal peace with cloud props, the qilin enters led by the sun, and finally the qilin gathers treasures from the human world.
The eight treasures
The qilin collects eight treasures - zither, chess, books, painting, antiquities, tower, vase and games - to adorn the heavenly palace.
The sun leading the qilin on stage
At the centre of the dance the performer playing the sun leads the qilin into the ring of clouds, giving the section its serene and dignified air.
Zhang Xishan's qilin-tail technique
Zhang Xishan joined the Qiaocun troupe as a boy under Hou Jishan and became known for dancing the qilin tail in a long-standing partnership with Wang Zhenping.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Qilin Collecting the Eight Treasures is transmitted mainly around Qiaocun Village, Xintian Township, Houguai City. The performing troupe made up of villagers of this same village is the main body of transmission; no branches outside the county have been observed, so it forms a single-village, single-school pattern of transmission. The shehuo and gong-and-drum traditions of the Fen-Kui confluence area in southern Shanxi provide accompaniment and a site for this dance, and the people of Qiaocun treat it as a public ceremony of the village, forming a troupe to take the field at the Spring Festival, temple fairs, and city and county folk arts performances. The troupe is led by older performers who take apprentices separately; Hou Jishan, Zhang Xishan and others successively served as the main performers, forming a fixed core based on the village. The "sun", the clouds and the eight treasure props used in the dance were all made by performers of this village, and the repair and renovation of the props have likewise been handed down through generations in the village; the assignment of roles in the troupe follows the fixed order of cloud dance first, qilin in the middle and treasure-gathering at the end.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Qilin Dance · Qilin Dance · Qilin Dance · Qilin Dance · Qilin Dance · Qilin Dance · Qilin Dance · Qilin Dance.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
With its deep cultural foundation and superb performance techniques, the Qiaocun Qilin Collecting the Eight Treasures is much loved by the local people and has important artistic value, research value and appreciation value. Zhang Xishan (official archive record of the associated inheritor): Male, of Han ethnicity, born in December 1949, native of Houguai City, Shanxi Province. Influenced from childhood by what he saw and heard, he has a special affection for Qilin Collecting the Eight Treasures, and joined the Qiaocun Qilin Collecting the Eight Treasures troupe under the older performer Hou Jishan when he was still in his teens. Owing to his tall build, nimble movements and vigorous dance steps, he is skilled at dancing the qilin's tail; he works in close accord with the performer Wang Zhenping, and the pair is a well-known qilin-dance combination locally. As he grew older and his skills improved, he became known not only within dozens of li around his home but also led a troupe to take part in city and county folk dance performances. Representative inheritor of the national-level intangible cultural heritage project Qilin Dance (Qilin Collecting the Eight Treasures), fifth national batch. As a folk performer shouldering the responsibility of transmitting the qilin dance, every Sunday he coach the Qiaocun traditional dance troupe free of charge, passing on relevant knowledge to the villagers. At the same time he keeps bringing young people who love folk dance and have a high artistic level into the troupe, strengthening the body of transmitters.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Yang Yinhai 03-0928
- Zhang Xishan 05-2248
- Songzhang 05-2249
- Liu Jintang
- Hanzhiyong
- Xie Yuqiu
- Zhang Zhiming
- Liu Weituan
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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